Daisy would be stuck on Earth, too — and it wouldn’t be long before ATC sent someone else after her. Someone who would do the job properly and bring her back to face her punishment — and the punishment would be even worse once they found out she’d avoided being brought back to them once. No, I wasn’t going to do it. Daisy had risked more than enough already. I wasn’t going to let her put herself on the line for me again.
“I’m not going to use the code,” I said firmly. “I’m not deserting you. We’ll go to ATC together. I don’t care what it takes or what happens to me, I’m not abandoning you. OK?”
Daisy looked at me for a moment. Then she smiled and lowered her head. “OK,” she said softly. “Thank you.”
I held the box out. “Are you ready?” I asked.
Daisy opened her mouth to reply — but suddenly stopped. “No! Wait!” she said. “Look, I’ve got another idea. A compromise.”
“Daisy, there’s no compromise. You’ve already said how strict ATC is.”
“I think I can get back another way,” she said. “Hold on to the code. We’ll face ATC together like you said. But once we know what they’re going to do with me, and once we know we can do it without causing any more trouble, you use the code to come back to Earth. OK?”
“How will you get back, though?” I asked.
“Annie,” Daisy said simply. “It was Robyn who reminded me — Annie said she’ll always be there for me. We know we can trust her. She can help me get back, I’m sure of it.”
Daisy was already moving away from the light. “Look, stay there. Wait for me. I’ll run to Annie’s and see if she can do this. If not, I’ll use the portal code, but please, let me try this first. Just wait for me, OK?”
I nodded. “OK,” I said. “But hurry.”
A moment later, Daisy was gone, and I was left alone, silently waiting in the vast black emptiness of the portal’s void.
It took longer than I’d expected to get Annie to help. Not that she was being unhelpful — she just wanted to understand the ins and outs of the whole thing so she knew what she was getting involved with.
We sat at her kitchen table, and I told her everything. As much of it as I could, anyway. I still didn’t know what had been going on with Philippa up at ATC. All I knew was that I had to get back there before they realized what she was doing.
Finally, I’d told Annie the whole story. She breathed out and shook her head. “I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into,” she said gently. From anyone else, it might have sounded like a warning. From Annie, I knew it was just her way of showing she cared.
“I do,” I said. “But right now, all that matters is that I need to get back before Philippa’s found out.”
Annie got up and climbed her stepladder to reach a jar on the top shelf. “Good thing I held on to this. Just promise me you won’t do anything silly,” she said. “Anything sillier than what you’ve already done.”
I shook my head. “I won’t.”
Annie poured the contents of the jar into a small bottle. A smell of jasmine and roses wafted around the kitchen as mauve and pink bubbles frothed around the top of the jar. “Drink this when you get to the portal,” she said, putting a lid on the bottle and closing it tight. “It will get you across.”
I took the bottle from her. “Thank you,” I said, getting up. “Annie, I wasn’t here, OK?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve already done so much for me — I don’t want to risk getting you in trouble with ATC, too.”
Before she could respond, I ran out the door, clutching a bottle of magic vapors in my hand and praying I got to Philippa before anyone else did.
Something was happening on the other side. Movement of some sort. Daisy — she was back! But what was she doing? She had a bottle in her hands and was taking the lid off. Bright colors spilled out of the bottle as soon as she’d opened it. Then she tipped the bottle up to her mouth and drank the contents.
Moments later, I watched her step forward — and enter the tunnel.
“You made it!” I said, letting out a breath that I felt I’d been holding for the last hour.
“I told you I would.” She moved away and indicated for me to come with her. “Come on, follow me,” she said. “Just keep walking in the darkness, and I’ll lead us back out.”
“Out?” I said hopefully. Had she found a way for us to escape from this mess?
Daisy glanced at me. “I mean back to ATC.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
I followed Daisy step by step into the void until, finally, the darkness began to lift. Before I knew it, we were back in the white corridor.
Daisy stopped. “Philippa, listen. Please. You shouldn’t come with me. There’s no need for you to get into trouble.”
“I’m coming,” I said firmly. “I told you, you’re not doing this on your own. I’m going to be beside you every step of the —”
“There she is!”
I spun around to see the two fairy godbrothers from RPD heading toward us. My first instinct was to run. My second instinct was to wave in what I hoped was a casual manner. On reflection, I imagine I probably looked more like someone flailing her arms in the air while drowning, but let’s face it — the thought of what lay ahead wasn’t exactly relaxing.
“Oh, hi there,” I said with the same attempting-casual-but-probably-failing-badly manner. “Just on our way up to High Command. See you there.”
The two fairy godbrothers looked at me. Then they looked at each other. Then they marched straight over to Daisy. One on either side of her, they took hold of her arms and started flying away with her.
“Hey!” I called to their retreating backs. “Where are you going?”
“High Command,” one of them called without turning around.
“Hold on, I’m coming too!” I called, trying to catch up. But no matter how fast I tried to go, they were professional fliers and I was still learning. They were still ahead of me and rapidly getting farther and farther away.
“It’s fine; you’re not needed anymore,” one of them shouted over his shoulder to me. Nice.
“You’re welcome, by the way!” I called — but they were virtually out of sight.
Now what? I stood watching them for a moment — and then I made up my mind. I’d promised Daisy I’d be there for her when she faced her punishment, and I wasn’t going to let her down. I knew where they were heading — the room with the stars inside it. I just had to find it again — on foot. Well, that’s what I would do. I had to help. I had to get Daisy out of this!
I waited in the holding area outside High Command, my head spinning with questions. What were they going to do to me? What would happen to Philippa? Would she be found out?
A light shone under the doorframe. Then the door opened and the light reached around and beckoned me in. This was it. Time to find out exactly what happened when you broke pretty much every rule in the Fairy Godmother Code.
I went inside and closed the door behind me.
“Do you know why you are here?” The star’s voice was cold and brittle, like a shard of ice.
I nodded. I kept my head down. I couldn’t bear to face that glare, the disappointment and anger behind it.
The next voice was softer. “We’re on your side,” the second star said. So that was how they did things around here: bad star/good star, like you get good cop/bad cop teams in those police dramas. Reel you in, make you feel comfortable, then wham! Hit you with your punishment.
It was so ridiculous, I nearly laughed. The only thing that stopped me was the absolute certainty that if I did, it would come out as a hysterical cry that I’d have no way of stopping.
Then the first star spoke again. But the weird thing was, her voice was just as soft. Good star and good star? “We mean it,” she said gently.
I opened my eyes. They had both materialized as people! I couldn’t believe it! There they were in front of me, both sitting back in big cozy armchairs.
Two kindly, middle-aged women with laugh lines and smiling eyes. What was going on?
I tried to sit up straighter and found that my chair had transformed into one the same as theirs. I couldn’t help relaxing into the comfy warmth of it.
The women both smiled at me. “We have a suggestion for you,” one of them said. She held her smile, but something told me she was faking it. I’d broken huge rules. I was due for one of the biggest punishments they could think of. Unless this was what they were like before they terminated you altogether.
“You have a choice,” the fairy went on. “You can face a Level One punishment if you choose.”
Level One? That was the worst! “Or?” I asked nervously.
The second fairy leaned forward in her chair. As far as she could on something bouncy and fluffy, anyway. “Or you could do something for us. One small favor and this whole thing is forgotten.”
“Forgotten?” I asked. “As in, disappears?”
She nodded. “As in, we wipe the slate clean and say no more about any of your misdemeanors.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“I’ll do it!” I said. I didn’t care what the favor was. Nothing could be worse than a Level One punishment! One small favor, she said, and I was off the hook. It was a no-brainer. A no-winger, a no-anythinger! I wanted to jump up and fly around the room; I wanted to run down the corridor shouting; I wanted to find Philippa and tell her; I wanted to —
“There is a human at ATC,” the first fairy said. Her smile had dropped but her eyes still looked kind.
“We want you to find her,” the second one continued.
“Mm-hmm,” I said. I didn’t trust myself to use actual words.
“You know how we feel about having humans at ATC,” the fairy went on. “It is not acceptable.”
“Absolutely not,” I said as convincingly as I could.
“And you know how we must punish them once we’ve found them,” the first one said.
I cleared my throat to hide a small yelp. “Um, remind me?”
The fairy laughed. “Oh, no. The punishment for a human at ATC is not something you say out loud.”
“Let’s just call it unspeakable,” the other one added.
“Unspeakable.” I gulped.
“You have one hour,” the first fairy said. “Bring us the human.” And with that, they both turned back into stars, transformed my chair into a stool so hard that I fell right off it, and shone their starlight at me so brightly, I had to shield my eyes.
Interview over, I guessed. My task had begun. I had one hour — to find my best friend and bring her in for an “unspeakable” punishment.
I left High Command in a complete daze. My brain wouldn’t do anything except run the same thought around and around again, over and over. After all this, my one way out of facing the worst punishment imaginable was to subject my best friend to it instead.
Philippa was there waiting for me at ALD.
“I tried to follow you but they wouldn’t let me in,” she said. “The guards brought me back here. I’ve been so worried. How are you? What happened?”
I tried to laugh off her barrage of questions. “Hey, I’m fine,” I said, looking everywhere except at her. “Couldn’t be better.” I tried a quick smile, but it probably looked more like the kind of expression they’d use on a poster for a horror movie.
“Anyway, I’d better get to work,” I said briskly. “Lots to catch up on. Talk to you later.”
And then I flipped a few folders over and shuffled some papers around and stared hard at the blank screen on my computer.
“Daisy, what is it?” Philippa asked gently. “What happened? Why are you being weird?”
“I’m not being weird,” I said. Why wouldn’t she go away? I needed to think. “Not weird at all. Just working. Lots to do.” I stared harder at my computer, frowning at it as though it contained the most important and interesting piece of information I’d ever seen. I hit a few keys on my keyboard, so she could see how hard I was working.
“Daisy,” Philippa said.
I tried to ignore her.
“Daisy!” she said more firmly.
I tore my eyes away from the screen and turned to face her. “What? You’ll have to be quick, because I really have lots of work.”
Philippa nudged a finger toward my computer screen. “It’s not even on,” she said.
I looked again at the screen. Then I looked at Philippa. Then I looked down at my desk.
“Daisy, what is it? What’s your punishment? I’m really sorry.” Philippa’s voice was so gentle I thought it was going to break me in two. “It’s all my fault,” she went on. “I’d do anything to help. I’d face the punishment myself if I could!”
She looked at me with such big, honest eyes, and with the kind of friendship I’ve never had with anyone else, and in that moment I realized what I had to do.
I smiled at Philippa. “Thank you!” I said, jumping out of my chair.
“What for?” Philippa asked. “I’m only saying the truth. That’s what friendship’s about, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Yes it is!” I said, for the first time in days feeling happy and excited. “I’d almost forgotten!”
I tidied my desk and headed down the corridor. “I’ll see you in a bit,” I said, desperately hoping I would. Who knew what I was going to face for doing this?
“Where are you going?” Philippa called as I hurried out of ALD.
“Just got to talk to someone,” I called back. Well, to two people. Two stars, to be precise.
I was going to tell them they could get someone else to do their dirty work. They could punish me as much as they wanted. I wasn’t going to betray Philippa. Nothing they could do to me would ever make me do that.
“So that’s it — that’s all there is to it,” FG32561 said defiantly. “You can do whatever you want with me, but I am declining your assignment, thank you.”
She stood in front of the two High Command officials, her knees shaking so much it was a wonder her legs were managing to hold her up straight. But still, she spoke with conviction.
The two stars — two of the highest ranking officials in the whole of ATC — turned to each other and nodded.
At this tiny gesture, the young fairy closed her eyes and swallowed hard.
Then one of the fairies spoke.
“Wait outside,” she said.
FG32561 did not need to be asked twice. She shot out of the room as quickly as her terrified body could manage.
Once the door was closed behind her, the stars turned to each other again. This time, their smiles were so bright, the room was ablaze with twinkling light. The older one spoke first. “We’ve found them,” she said. “They are exactly what we need.”
“And just in time!” the other replied. “Let’s get them back in here, and get the real assignment started.”
And with that, word was instantly issued to their staff. “Bring FG32561 back in the room. And that new fairy at ALD — the one that located FG32561 — bring her to us as well. Immediately.”
I bit my nails, twirled my hair, hummed quietly to myself, and looked at my watch again.
Only a minute had passed since I’d last looked. Where was she? What was going on? Why hadn’t she told me what she was going to do? I couldn’t stand the thought of Daisy getting into any more trouble — and I couldn’t bear not knowing what had happened to her.
I was on the verge of going off to look for her when the door at the end of the office materialized — and the two male fairies about my age walked in.
They looked slowly around the whole office. Then they spotted me and instantly headed my way.
I gulped hard and tried to focus. I’d said I’d rather take the punishment than have Daisy face it herself — maybe that was exactly what was going to happen. I’d obviously put the thought into Daisy’s head, and she’d put it into action!
No! She wouldn’t do that — would she?
The fairy g
odbrothers had arrived at my desk and indicated for me to follow them out of the office.
“We’ve been sent to get you,” one of them said. And without another word, they escorted me from my desk, along the corridor, and out of the office.
“Good luck!” Tabby whispered as I passed her. I tried to smile at her, but as with everything else I’d attempted since I’d been here, I failed.
“We’ll get straight to the point,” the fairy said. She told us she was called Alya. I was only half listening at this point. The other half of me was trying to communicate with Daisy. She was here, too! We’d been summoned together. At least that told me one thing. Whatever was happening, we were in it together. She hadn’t pushed me forward for punishment instead of herself. I knew she wouldn’t have, really. I felt disloyal for even having let the thought cross my mind.
The other fairy spoke. She was called Chara. “But first, sit down,” she said.
Er, on what? There weren’t any chairs! But when I looked again, a pair of comfy chairs had appeared behind us. And then a table appeared in front of us, with two steaming cups of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies.
“Help yourselves,” Chara added.
Was it a trick? We’d broken some of their most important rules, and they were offering us cocoa and cookies?
“We’ll wait,” Daisy said firmly. “Let’s hear what you have to say to us first.”
“I agree,” I said — even though the hot chocolate did smell really nice.
“Very well,” Alya said. “We’ve brought you here because of the way you have both acted.”
“Philippa’s done nothing wrong!” Daisy said.
“Neither has Daisy,” I added quickly. “Everything she’s done is because of how good and how loyal she is, nothing else.”
Alya held up a hand. “Wait, wait,” she said calmly.
“We know all this,” Chara said. “You have both acted exactly how we wanted you to act.”
“Wanted us to act?” I said. “What do you mean?”
The fairy looked at me. “You refused to use the code to get you back to Earth, so you could stand by your friend’s side if she was in trouble.”